Acer C720 Chromebook and ChromeOS Review

When my 3+ year old DELL laptop died a few weeks back, I decided to give Chromebooks a try. So the Acer C720, at just $199, became my new laptop. This is my experience with it so far.

The Acer C720 is similar in specs to other Chromebooks currently on the market. It’s a Haswell architecture with a dual core Celeron, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB flash, HDMI-out, 3 USB, webcam, Bluetooth, and a 1366×768 px screen. It’s 0.8″ tall, and weighs just 2.76 lbs. Its battery life is rated for 8.5 hours but in real world usage rated at about 7 hours. You can view its specs in detail here.

The laptop feels very light, sturdy and of a good build quality. Its keyboard is easy to get accustomed to, and I had no trouble at all, coming from a radically different keyboard design on the DELL. The ChromeOS function keys are really handy too, e.g. to change brightness, volume etc. The touchpad has the right size, position and responsiveness too.

The C720 is a fast booter too, definitely faster to boot than Ubuntu or Windows 7 on my previous DELL V130 laptop (Intel i3, HDD), and also faster than my husband’s Samsung Chromebook (Exynos, flash). The OS updated automatically as soon as it connected to the Internet, and rebooted fast too. All my bookmarks and information from my other Chrome browsers were automatically added to this laptop’s Chrome version, and so the switch was painless. I only needed to move over my custom index.html page that I use as my startup page for years (I don’t use bookmarks or Chrome’s startup page, I use my own). Apart from that, I was up and running within 5-10 minutes.

I installed a few third party Chrome apps/extensions but I found most of them to be largely useless. I only kept Caret (an offline text editor that I’m typing this review with right now), Pixlr Touch Up (offline basic image manipulation), two links to an online calculator (is there any good, offline one?), and to Amazon Kindle reader page. And 2-3 online games.

I must note here that if something like Pixlr didn’t exist for ChromeOS, I wouldn’t have bought the Chromebook. I often snap pictures of my (Paleo) food and post recipes on my blog, so I need some basic image manipulation: crop and resize are paramount, and if possible, some brightness-fixing. Pixlr for the win!

Acer C720 on the left, Samsung Chromebook on the right

In this last week, there are only two apps that I missed. One of them is actually a common complain among Chromebook users, and the other one is more of a personal need. So, the first app that some might miss is Skype. Sure, there’s Hangouts that works well, but our (older) friends and family use Skype. I constantly need to Skype with my mom in Greece for example, and I have to have an iPad for that! Unfortunately, Skype’s performance and stability is atrocious on Android too (we have 5-6 such devices here, none works as well as iOS does with Skype).

Interestingly, to use Hangouts text chat you still need to open a G+ or Gmail page. The provided Hangouts app is only for video and group text chat associated to the video. All I want is to sometimes text-chat people who are at work and can’t video-chat, so why do I still need to open up a Gmail or G+ tab just for that? And why when they IM me instead, don’t Hangouts or some other desktop daemon notify me? GTalk is not as integrated so far. I don’t get Gmail notifications either. Update: Another user suggested this extension which works well.

On the positive side of things, the C720 can playback 1080p video without dropping frames, from either Youtube, Vimeo, or from my Canon digicam (1080/24p, h.264 35 mbps). Apple’s popular trailer videos don’t work, as expected, due to Quicktime. I also tested a 4k/24p video on Youtube, which played back at around 12 fps (which is still impressive, considering). While playback is fine, I still need a basic h.264 encoder and/or editor. I snapped a video the other day with my digicam that records at 35 mbps, so I needed a tighter encoding at that resolution, similar to the one Youtube or Vimeo do at around 5 mbps VBR. I needed to send that video to someone via email, so it had to be tight in terms of size, while retaining its clarity. I had no way of doing this kind of re-encoding on ChromeOS. And I couldn’t upload to youtube or vimeo either, because that video was about official, legal business, so I’d prefer it if I didn’t have to upload it online — even if it was marked as “private” or set with a password. At the end, I caved in and uploaded it with a password, only to find out that the recipients never clicked through, they prefer attachments. Long story short, just as there’s a very basic, *offline* manipulation app for images, I also need one for video.

Another app I needed was an “offline” based FTP client (“offline” meaning, it doesn’t go through third party services to load itself) to upload the pictures for this review. Not that plain FTP is that secure itself, but still, it’s risky using third party web sites online to connect to a 3rd party server.

Overall, the above are just small grievances, usage patterns that differ between users. What might be a bigger problem though is Acer C720’s WiFi chipset/driver. It would disconnect every few minutes from our TrendNET router, and it would in fact lose all its WiFi while doing so (looked like a driver crash). Disabling WiFi and re-enabling it would give me WiFi access for another few minutes again, until the next crash would occur. A quick Google search about it revealed that others had the sameexperience with the specific Chromebook model and some routers. I eventually found that I had to change the WiFi Channel from “Auto”, to a specific number. When I did that, all WiFi problems went away. Please note that this seems to be a bug on the Acer Chromebooks models, and not necessarily a ChromeOS bug. My husband’s Samsung Chromebook (or any other of our devices) never exhibited these WiFi woes with our router. Update: Since I’ve written this review, a yet another ChromeOS update seems to have the problem fixed.

In terms of performance, my Haswell Acer C720 runs circles around my husband’s Samsung Exynos-based Chromebook. It loads and renders much faster, and it feels much more responsive. However, it still comes with a limited 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage. That amount of storage is enough actually, if you don’t want to store or edit video, or if you don’t have aspirations to also have room for an Ubuntu partition. But the 2 GB of RAM might prove a problem to some users, particularly those who open lots of tabs. If you’re a tab-o-holic, and you open more than ~20 tabs at the same time, you might want to wait for a 3-4 GB RAM Chromebook model. Otherwise, you’ll experience re-renders of each page every time you click a tab, and this can be an annoying user experience after a while. For my personal usage patterns, this has been a problem only once (I opened about 20 tabs on a recipe web site), but generally it’s not a problem.

Bluetooth works well with mice, keyboards and headphones, but it’s got a major limitation for my needs: it doesn’t support OBEX or a similar file-transferring protocol. I’m very often snapping food pictures with my Galaxy Nexus that I want to slightly manipulate before I upload on my recipe blog (crop and resize). Unfortunately, there’s no way to transfer the picture from my Google phone to my Google laptop wirelessly. If Google’s suggestion for this problem is to upload to Picasa, my reply is that I don’t care about Picasa, neither I want to use it on my WordPress blog. I also never carry cables, so I’d really would like a Bluetooth profile update about this on ChromeOS.

The file manager that comes with ChromeOS is sufficient but it has problems. I can’t fullscreen images to 1:1 size when I view them, if I delete a zip file while mounted the entry doesn’t go away until I reboot, and other such small problems that indicate an issue with a mature UI and user experience, rather than major engineering holes.

In terms of quality, for most of the hardware I’m pleased: USB 2.0 and 3.0, SD card slot (SD card doesn’t go all the way in btw, it hangs out), mic and headphones port, a very loud, good-quality speaker, HDMI-out, and a good battery life. The screen is sufficient for what it is too. There’s only one hardware part that’s sub-par: the webcam. This is marked as VGA camera, but it looks worse than that. Imagine QVGA quality, stretched to 720p, and applied a gazillion of filters by default to hide the noise, resulting in a plasticky, “fake” look (no matter the lighting conditions).

Webcam grab on good lighting conditions

However, I’m sure most of us will survive a bad webcam quality. ChromeOS is primarily a web browsing OS, and that, it does well. For those people who don’t have special-interest usage patterns, it will fulfill its goal. It’s fast, it’s stable, and it fills-in a niche: the type of niche that has users wanting a better browsing experience than that found on a tablet, but without needing the full-fledged abilities of a conventional laptop. Would I recommend it? Yes, but not to absolutely everyone. If you’re into just web browsing and you don’t require Skype, go for it. If you require heavy apps, get a conventional laptop. If you require mostly “peripheral” apps and lite HW, get a tablet.

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47 Comments

Considering the lack of control and non-Google app selection, I consider this platform as closed as any Apple one, regardless of the source underneath. You’re buying a one-way ticket into the Google life-preservation ecosystem with this.

That’s true, but Apple (as you mention), Microsoft, and Amazon are unfortunately just as guilty. Even Canonical (Ubuntu) has taken revenue-generating steps such as running your dash searches on Amazon by default that has caused a segment of their user base to recoil in horror (sometimes overblown, IMHO).

As far as I know, no mainstream environment actively protects user privacy any longer. Those who truly care must homebrew or wipe a commercial machine and install something like gNewSense.

So as far as I can tell, my choice is libre or convenience – and if I choose convenience, Google is as convenient and roughly as un-private as any other. *shrugs*

My problem with the whole ChromeOS concept is simple…we went through this in the 90s, it was called thinclients and they are now nearly all dumpster bait.

I mean maybe its different where you are but I’ve been all over the so called “bible belt” and “flyover states” in the USA and there is a LOT of places where there is no free Wifi and as this article shows without Wifi? Its a brick, it can’t really even do as much as your average $50 Android tablet.

So if you want cheap? They still make netbooks, they just don’t call ’em netbooks anymore. Just picked up a “Discless notebook” for a customer, had 4Gb of RAM and an AMD Jaguar quad for $350, it works nice. Heck my 4 year old Asus EEE still works great for that matter and unlike the thinclient Chromebooks I can get all my work done without a net connection, I have even sat in the doctor’s office and thanks to Audacity and Hydrogen I have been able to write drum tracks and edit my band’s latest recordings no problem.

And does Google still cripple the hardware? I can take this EEE and install Linux (came with Linux based Expressgate, not bad for quick web surfing) or XP or BSD or make it a Hackentosh, pretty much anything I want. Last I checked you can ONLY run a couple of Linux distros and ONLY if they have a hacked bootloader for that specific model, honestly it felt like I was looking at a smartphone more than a laptop made of bog standard X86 parts. I’m sure I’ll get hate from the Googleites for saying this but taking something as open as X86 and turning it into a cellphone is kinda douchey IMHO, even MSFT lets you set up dual boots or install any OS on the new UEFI systems.

This is exactly what a person who has never used a Chromebook would post. Limitations, old idea, crippled hardware, etc. The Chromebook is an extremely useful tool, the amount of online apps and their usefulness is staggering. I am a programmer with 20+ plus years of experience and am currently working for one of the largest banks in the world, UBS. Our company deploys Chromebox’s to almost all of our employees. As you say it’s nothing more than a 90’s style dumb terminal, except with this dumb terminal you can stream any OS from the server to the Chrome device in almost real time. Even without logging into a Windows environment I am still able to create all of my apps with a Chromebook or Chromebox using Codenvy, write my how-toâ€™s and full manuals with MS’s awesome online Office app through Skydrive, support calibration with other programmers, edit personal photos with Pixlr, read and write emails through a custom email client that is available online. There is an app for almost everything you can imagine and like it or not, this is where technology is moving towards, again. Dumb terminals, the perfect solution, no more updates, viruses, malware, always the newest version, fastest boot times, etc. I don’t see the disadvantages especially in a work environment. Yes, those who treasure their so called privacy will be skeptics but letâ€™s face it, there is no such thing as privacy anymore when youâ€™re online. Get used to it.

Where I work, with my Chromebox, Samsung i5, 16GB Ram, 32GB SSD, I login into my development site, using a Remote Desktop app, login into the Windows 8 server, or Solaris server, there is absolutely nothing I cannot accomplish with ChromeOS. When I go home or travel I bring my white Acer C720P, 4GB Ram, 128GB SSD and can login to the exact same environment anywhere in the world. If I lose my laptop or if it’s stolen, so what, all I have to do is replace it with another Chromebook (I have an HP 11 for backup) and once I log in everything is already setup. All I have to do is provide passwords (actually no, Chrome saves everything). There is no data for the thieves or person who finds the old Chromebook to steal. Well maybe for some videos which I have about 100 of. If I download an .MKV that doesn’t have sound all I do is switch over to Debian, through the wonderfully awesome Crouton. Then just convert it to MP4 using a one liner command. While that’s converting in the background I switch back to ChromeOS. Same thing goes if and when I need things like Skype or Photoshop running through Wine, which runs just fine, so does Office 11 but I prefer using the online Office version, it’s awesome. All this for a low, low price of 350 bucks plus the 80 I spent on the faster, bigger 128GB SSD. What else is out there for this price, yes you can buy a used Lenovo T410 or X210 for the same but then your back to an unsecured OS that you’ll have to maintain. Again there is nothing I cannot do with ChromeOS, mixed with a Crouton Debian (XFCE Desktop Environment).

The people who complain about the Chromebook have not used one or do not have the ability, patients to make it into the perfect Office laptop or home entertainment machine. A Chromebox connected to your TV is the perfect media machine, it can play almost every codec and if there is a problem, converting the media file to something the Chrombox can play is extremely easy to convert and fast. Spotify.com, Pandora.com, Youtube.com, Tubeplus.me, Icefilms.info, Zatoo.com, Hulu.com, Alluc.to, so many sites that look wonderful and are so entertaining.

Google has subsidized the cost in one way or another, and so you can buy one off their back and never use Google services at all, extracting good value from Google’s carcass. As long as you’ve got a remote desktop to log into.

If you know a bit of Linux or are prepared to learn a bit, best thing you can do is to install a Linux variant using Chrubuntu or sideloading it with ChromeOS.

This would make Skype possible (4.2 a pretty good version compared to Windows as the interface is straight forward but still feature complete), any IM, video editing software, NX or VNC, videoplayers, Firefox, and all your Linux favourites without the drawbacks of a walled garden owned by a company that ultimately makes money by trying to know as much as possible from you.

That said, Google has not (yet) disabled installing another OS and they could do that with the dreaded ‘secure’ boot.

Typing this on XFCE on an Acer C710, 170 USD, probably the most bang for buck computer I ever bought (but not because of ChromeOS)

This is not possible on the C720, the model reviewed, or any other model currently sold by Google. This was one of my problems with the current models (they’re ALL low RAM/HDD). Your discontinued model, the C710, has a 320 GB of HDD, which allows for Ubuntu. The C720 only has 16 GB of flash, and the C720P has only 32 GB of flash, which makes Ubuntu problematic. Your model can be found only on overstock sites now, for over $100 over its original price.

The RAM is soldered onto the motherboard and can’t be replaced. I use 2GB on my C710 and never have any problem, but I can understand some use cases might not work. Maybe buy the 4GB version and create a swapfile.

Replacing an SSD and adding more RAM by opening the laptop manually is not what most people who buy Chromebooks want to do. My point is that currently, the models offered by Google are *almost* all the same, and I find this very limiting: 11.6″ screens with the same res, 16 GB SSD, 2 GB RAM for all sub-$250 laptops. There’s no actual choice.

Personally, I could upgrade them, but I refuse to do so. I’ve left that world of tinkering years ago. Now, something that I buy, either works as I expected it to, or it ends up in the bin (sometimes I don’t even donate it – I trash it to the recyclables and never look back at it). I don’t have the patience or the interest for tinkering anymore. I’m 40 years old now, I prefer to do other things (e.g. cooking, gardening etc — I know, I grew soft ;-).

If in the long run this Chromebook doesn’t work as I want it to, I will buy a Macbook. Macbooks were my 1st choice in fact, but they were so much more expensive, that I decided to give Chromebooks a chance (at that price it made sense to do so). So far, since I do my main work with a PC, the Chromebook works ok for casual browsing when I sit in front of the TV. I use my iPad when I travel, or my Galaxy Nexus.

My previous laptop (the one that died) was running Ubuntu. I use the best device for each circumstance (based on my needs, of course), so I’m OS-agnostic. But what I buy, it has to work as it’s expected of it, out of the box.

The small amount of RAM/SSD is IMHHO Very limiting especially with a pretty good CPU at its heart.

The screen resolution is also a limiting factor. Small form factor does not always mean a crippled screen resolution. There are plenty devices out there with a similar form factor (or smaller) that give a higher screen resolution.

It is almost as if Google are dipping their toe in the water but are not sure where to go or what to do next.

That is a shame. This might be a dead end platform (like the surface-RT perhaps?).

My 2008 13in MacBook is still going strong. It runs CentOS. I recently upgraded it with a 480Gb SSD. Even the Core 2 Duo CPU seems to fly now.

It does feel like a dead-end platform at the moment. I would like to see Google become much more ambitious with Chrome OS to make it in to a fully-blown OS. They should develop an offline video editing app and bundle it with Chrome OS (written as a bundle PNaCl app).

I just wanted to show that if you really want to upgrade your Chromebook to something capable of running most applications, it is possible. With my C710, that is actually for free, and takes only 30 min.

The hardware is so good that I now use it as a primary laptop, for every type of use I have. I even got rid of my tablet.

ChromeOS is going up in the world, sales went up enormously. I totally agree the combination of cheap and ‘can’t break, simple’ software works well, but I would love to see what the breakdown is between people using it as primary computer (but let’s say people who only browse and email), people who use it as a secondary computer (couch, tablet replacement) and those who wipe Chrome and put Linux on it.

It’s clear that Google deliberately made it more difficult to change the computer, there is nothing stopping it from putting on Windows except for secure boot. The soldered RAM is something only on the latest models.

I don’t have nor want to spend more than 1000 usd on a Macbook, I think it’s just too much, even if they are clearly gorgeous machines.

What I am hoping for the future is that the Chromebook manufacturers build the same laptop but with the usual hardware interfaces, for the same price or something higher but without any OS. I think that would sell well.

But what exactly is the appeal of it other than just going for the most dirt cheap thing you can find?

After all your article makes it pretty clear its just a glorified thin client, no different than what we had in the 90s like the Sun Ray, so other than its $250 what would make you choose this over something where you can run any OS you want and use it offline with full functionality?

I don’t know, maybe its just me, but when you can get quad core AMD jaguar laptops and netbooks in the $350 USD range I just don’t see the appeal. And doesn’t it still require wiping the OS and then sideloading and using hacked bootloaders to load a different OS? Again maybe its just me but I find a company taking X86, one of the most open computing platforms in history, and making it as locked down as a cellphone VERY uncomfortable. Sure cheap is one thing but surely its not the ONLY thing, so what am I missing? What is the appeal?

And for those buying them as thin clients…sure if you are in a large corp with VM servers I can at least GET that, in a large corp having a single OS image is certainly easier to manage than a ton of desktops. but this thing is being marketed to consumers who will NOT have their own OS image servers and for them? I just don’t see any upside other than price and honestly, at least in the USA, you can get a refurb with a full OS for the same price if price is all you care about.

The appeal is that I paid $200. It was a matter of being cheap, AND not needing too much out of my laptop. If I wanted “so much more”, I would have gone for a Macbook, as I mentioned in a previous comment. But I only needed a “few more” (e.g. skype), that I was willing to leave behind for the RIGHT PRICE. So that right price is $200.

Besides, I hate Windows 8.1, and Ubuntu is full of problems (since their October update, they broke a lot of things in terms of power management). So it was either THIS dirt cheap thing, or it was a $1600 Macbook. I had already decided what I wanted before buying the Chromebook. It was definitely not another Windows laptop, and I wasn’t that interested anymore on Ubuntu (which I only see as “nice to have if I need it”, rather than “must have”).

I discussed it with my husband, who put it in perspective one night, as we drove to a party: “ask yourself this: is the Macbook 8 times better than a Chromebook? If yes, go for it”. So I thought about it, and for my NEEDS, the Macbook was about 3 to 4 times better (again, measuring my own needs, not objective betterness). So, the logical conclusion, best ratio of features for the money, it was the Chromebook. So far, it’s being a good-enough experience, mostly because I have an iPad to fall off to, and a PC to do my artwork.

Well I’ll be the first to admit that we here in the USA do get cheap gear so its probably easier for us to just get a refurb and I don’t blame you when it comes to Win Mist8ke, in fact I wiped it off my family’s machines and no longer carry it at the shop.

But at least where I live free WiFi can be few and far between so while I’m glad that it works for you I just don’t see these things ever really taking off as without net? Well that Scroogle ad was right it really is pretty much a paperweight.

Its just a shame they re as locked down as they are because here the ads are full of Chromebooks in the $120-$170 range, folks use them a couple times and then get rid of them. If I could install Win 7 I’d be snatching like there is no tomorrow but I don’t like Ubuntu either but there just isn’t really anything else you can do with ’em which is why they are so cheap I suppose.

Anyway I’m glad that you found something you like that works for you, it sounds like you feel about your Chromebook the way I feel about my EEE, its cheap, does everything I want it to do, its just a shame they don’t make ’em anymore.

This would mean that ChromeOS would have to go away, and I don’t want that. Ubuntu is not very well supported on these machines (it’s entirely done by third party enthusiasts), so it makes no sense to nuke ChromeOS completely on these specific machines. Also, for the C720 specific model, the RAM is not upgradeable.

I see. I imagined you would get a similar feature set if you would install Chromium (or Chrome) on Ubuntu.

I don’t think it’s only third party enthusiasts who enable support though. It seems Google engineers themselves are also spending time on getting all the required code upstream (and even in coreboot).

This would seem to make Chromebooks very suitable for running Ubuntu (and other distros), but maybe it would be better to wait for the next LTS for complete support.

I was mainly considering Chromebooks, because I expected their compatibility with other OSs (apart from closed source ones) to be high. It would be interesting to see how this will work out in the future. I’m a bit surprised now that Ubuntu support is behind now.

With Crouton, there is no need to wipe ChromeOS. Another advantage is you can switch between ChromeOS and Ubuntu within seconds. And you can remove “unnecessary” applications in the Ubutun distro to get more space as well.

I actually wouldn’t install Ubuntu on your Chrome as it’s become the Windows of the Linux world, meaning it’s bloatware. Especially on a Chromebook that only has 2GB (Side note, those who are thinking about buying a Chromebook, please spend the extra money and get one with 4GB, 2GB is NOT enough for a comfortable experience). Anyway Crunchbang is now available for Chromebook and it is literately night and day speed wise when compared too Ubuntu with its laggy, bloated Desktop Environment.

Since it uses Crouton it runs on the ChromeOS kernel so you can switch back and forth. Anyway here is the easy to follow instructions.

Sorry but I don’t find this realistic. The space is minimal as you said, it’s difficult to install and not well supported. To install Ubuntu there i need more than that from both Google, the laptop manufacturer, and Ubuntu. Right now the time is not ripe for it. It’s just a geek’s play.

Mine is the C720 model 4GB with 16GB SSD. The available space initially is about 9GB-9.5GB (if I remember correctly), and after install Crouton with Elementary OS, it only went down to 6GB – which is pretty sweet.

Thank you for the suggestion, but I don’t like third party solutions for things that I consider fundamental in an OS. I like “clean” solutions, supported by the OS maker when it comes to my files. Bluetooth OBEX is the cleanest solution there is, in terms of what is expected out of a modern device. The last thing I want to do is run a web server on my cellphone. That’s not me anymore.

Install Crouton along side ChromeOS. The install script is extremely easy to follow. Since you only have 2GB of ram I would install Debian with XFCE. This will install Linux in the same run time as ChromeOS and you can jump back and forth with CTRL+ALTF+F1/F2. I would have defiantly bought the 4GB version however, 2GB even 4GB is just not enough anymore. I know it’s hindsight but it’s only a 100 dollars and some changer more and you would have had the opportunity to install 16GB of RAM. Best Buy installed the memory for free when I bought mine so the argument of not wanting to tinker falls flat. Costco also sells the HP 14″ for 330.00 with 4GB if the Acer brand doesn’t thrill some people. I recently purchased one for my mother and I have to say the HP 11 & 14 models are defiantly the best built and looking out of the bunch. I know 200 seems like a good deal but it is just not worth being locked into a machine that won’t satisfy your needs, especially in the long run. 2GB is just not enough for the Chromebook I see the Acer 720’s with 4GB on eBay going for 330 new as well.

I haven’t used CLoud9 yet but I think Codenvy will suite you just fine or just install Eclipse, Netbeans, don’t forget to install https://code.google.com/p/java-on-chromebook/ first. This is Java for the Chromebook, after you install install it just download Eclipse and follow the install instructions. You will have to start Eclipse using the terminal CTRL+ALT+T/F2.

A Chromebook is a dumb, almost stateless terminal. And that is its big advantage.

My intention is to build a completely server based development system that is accessed via a web browser. That system should be able to meet IEC/ISO 61508 SIL 4 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_61508) requirements.

If you happen to do anything productive on your computer aside from pure information gathering work, the Chrome OS will only set artificial limitations for you. Even such web-centric activity as blogging proves to be a serious hindrance on the machine. Ever more if private information control is of *any* concern.

Even such unwieldy combination as an Android tablet + phy keyboard looks to be light years ahead here.

Blogging is extremely easy with the Chromebox, what blog doesn’t support web interfaces, none, they all have one. The Chromebook/box is actually one of the best blogging machines out there. Please, people, if you haven’t used a Chrome device for at least a week your opinion is absolutely mute. I’m currently watching an episode of Real Detectives at 720P on my connected Samsung TV, while I’m compiling a program in the background, posting to this forum and am in a Hangouts call with my mother who lives in the US, I’m in Switzerland, she likes to watch/listen to what I am doing during the day, even if we’re not talking. There are no hiccup’s, no error messages, smooth as a Baileys Irish Cream cocktail.

am I wrong ? or isn’t the cost much greater as I had understood that Google wants $28 a month to use these web books ? if this is true, the cost of using these is much higher, it is an unending outpouring of money. then as Google often does they decide to drop the service, where are you then ?